Preview Asus G750JX Notebook

The screen can neither cover sRGB nor AdobeRGB completely. However, this is only important for professional graphic designers and photographers.

Thanks to the matte display surface, the passable brightness, and the good contrast, the Asus G750 can also be used outdoors in theory. However, this scenario is not very likely as the notebook is bulky and relatively heavy.

As the viewing angles are rather narrow in a vertical direction, we quite often had to adjust the opening angle. Horizontally, the colors do not change that quickly and the image remains clearly legible for 2 to 3 people side by side.

The Asus G750JX features two 2.5-inch hard drive slots. In our pre-sample configuration  both were occupied with a Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 hard drive with 750 GB capacity and a revolution speed of 7,200 rpm. So, the total gross hard drive capacity is 1.5 TB. It remains to be seen how the devices for selling will be equipped. We think a possible combination of fast SSD as system drive and big conventional hard drive for data would be attractive.

Let us briefly look at the hard drive benchmarks: the Hitachi HDD can score points in HD Tune with a decent average transfer rate of 103.2 MB/s and an access time of 16.4 ms. It belongs to the faster models of its kind. While it cannot keep up with modern SSDs, it delivers relatively large capacity for a small price.

Let us see how the test device performs in BioShock Infinite (reviewed here). In the benchmark integrated into the game (high graphics quality, 1366x768), the Asus G750 with Nvidia GTX 770M GPU achieves 101 fps. The AMD 7970M (XMG P502 with 3610QM) is 16% faster, the GTX 680M in the same notebook 22%. 1^st place: Nvidia GTX 780M in the XMG P703 with +46%. The GTX 670MX (also in the Asus G75VX predecessor) is, with -23%, significantly slower.

We increase the demands on the GPU (1920x1080, ultra). Nvidia's new flagship, the GTX 780M, outperforms our test model by 57% and the two former top models, the 7970M and the 680M are also significantly  faster: +56% for the Nvidia GPU and +46% for AMD in the XMG P502 notebook. Interestingly, the distance to the GTX 670MX decreases notably: the predecessor is only 7% slower here. 

Crysis 3 also qualifies well for a comparison as it is a demanding game. With high settings (1366x768, high) the Asus G750 achieves 49.1 fps in our Crysis 3 benchmark run. 1^st place: the GTX 780M in the Schenker P703 with +47%. The GTX 680M in the XMG P502 is +5% faster while the 7970M in the same device is -9%, the GTX 670MX -29% and the GTX 660M -47% slower.

At maximum graphics settings (1920x1080, ultra) the ranking is the same as in BioShock. Unchallenged top: GTX 780M with +50%, followed by the GTX 680M with +12% and the 7970M with +4%. The GTX 670MX with -29% and the 660M with -49% are significantly slower. The powerful Haswell CPU of our test model could have a positive impact on the performance with high graphics settings.

Finally, we compared Far Cry 3 (in-depth benchmark check) in detail. Our G750 test configuration with Haswell CPU and Nvidia GTX 770M graphics card achieves 58.6 fps with high graphics details (1366x768, high) and is on par with the AMD 7970M in the XMG P502. Again the GTX 780M from Nvidia in the XMG P703 is fastest with +36%. Nvidia's GTX 680M in the P502 is about 17% faster. As usual, the GTX 670MX (-25%) and the 660M (-39%) are slower.

If we increase the demands on the GPU (1920x1080, ultra) first place does not change: +45% for the GTX 780M. But, this time the HD 7970M is second for the first time (+22%); Nvidia's GTX 680M follows with +12%. The 670MX and 660M are -34% and -49% slower.

Asus' gaming meteors have always been associated with acceptable noise levels. Given the update of the core components in the G750, it is interesting to see how the system noise developed.

Like in the predecessor, Asus does not use a graphics switch (Nvidia Optimus) in the G750 test model. So, the dedicated graphics card is also active in low load scenarios. While idle, we measure a minimum of 33.6 dB(A) and the noise is clearly audible, but it remains in the background. The G75VX predecessor was slightly quieter here.

As usual the G750 demonstrates its strength under load. In 3DMark06, the noise level is mostly around 36.8 dB(A). Subjectively, the notebook is only marginally louder than during undemanding office use. During the stress test (Prime95 and Furmark) the system reached a maximum noise of 41.4 dB(A). Given the performance, this is still decent. In a realistic test, e.g. a Battlefield 3 session of multiple hours, we measured about 40 dB(A).

To summarize, the Asus G750 shows a familiar behavior. The system could be quieter in idle and low load scenarios. Once again we want to mention that the test sample's status is not final.

The dual fan system (one fan/heat sink/heat pipe per GPU and CPU) keeps the temperature mostly especially cool. While idle, the upper side of the base unit, i.e. keyboard and touchpad, partly remains significantly below 30 °C. Even the underside only slightly exceeds this level.

We ran the stress test (full load) for multiple hours again and measured the temperature: The maximum temperature was 35.4 °C at the keyboard and the temperature stays below 30 °C at the palm rests. On the underside the temperature increased to a maximum of 46.7 °C towards the back alongside the fan grilles.

During games (Battlefield 3) the temperatures stayed below these values. On the keyboard side the temperature just increased to 32.8 °C, while the underside reached a more than acceptable maximum of 40.1 °C. 

Stress test

As usual we ran a stress test for multiple hours. Prime95 and Furmark generate 100% CPU and GPU load and after about three hours we measure the core temperatures and record the clock rates of the two core components. The built-in CPU did not show any signs of thermal throttling and clocked constantly at just under 3 GHz with a core temperature of 83-87 °C. The GeForce GTX 770M graphics card can also constantly use the turbo and clocked at 823 MHz. The temperature measured was about 79 °C (according to CPUID Hardware Monitor). Although this is an extreme scenario, it appears that there are still sufficient cooling reserves for potential upgrades.

Like its predecessors the Asus G750 does not use a graphics switch. So, the dedicated GTX 770M is always active. In the best case (idle, min. brightness, energy saving module, flight mode) the G750 still requires 22.5 Watt. In comparison: The G75VX only needs 15.4 Watt here. The Schenker P703 notebook (Haswell CPU, GTX 780M) reviewed at the same time is also more frugal with 19.8 Watt in this scenario, but uses Nvidia Optimus. The maximum energy demand of the G750 is 30.6 Watt without load while the P703's is 31.4 Watt.

Under load (3DMark06) the G750 pre-sample needs about 95 Watt. The predecessor (3610QM/GTX 670MX) was also more frugal with 82 Watt here. Schenker's XMG P703 with GTX 780M has a significantly higher energy demand of 128 Watt. The maximum of 164 Watt was recorded during the stress test. The included power adapter has a sufficient capacity of 200 Watt.